Christopher Hughes: Gang killed man wrongly suspected of rape

Image source, Police handout

Image caption, Christopher Hughes was stabbed over 90 times in the attack

Seven men have been found guilty of the kidnap and murder of a man they wrongly suspected of raping a teenage girl.

Christopher Hughes was found dead near a road in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, after being stabbed over 90 times.

The 37-year-old, from Wigan, had been snatched from a street and bundled into the boot of an Audi before being driven to his death in February.

At Liverpool Crown Court the men were remanded in custody and will be sentenced next month.

The court heard during the trial how Mr Hughes had been hunted by the gang, who wrongly suspected him of the knifepoint rape of a teenage girl behind a post office in Wigan.

When he was spotted in Almond Grove, Wigan on 18 February he was abducted by Curtis Balbas and Erland Spahiu.

The former boxer was driven to White Moss Road South, Skelmersdale, where he was stabbed to death.

On the evening of the killing Dean O'Neill Davey, Andrius Uzkuraitis, Erland Spahiu and his cousin, who was visiting from London, Erion Voja, had tried to hide the body, said John Elvidge, KC, prosecuting.

The gang had attempted to bury Mr Hughes' body on waste land but were disturbed by police cars investigating a road traffic accident nearby.

They abandoned the burial and his body was found at the foot of the embankment on White Moss Road South by a dog walker four days later.

Ahead of the trial opening Curtis Balbas, 30, of Matheson Drive, Worsley Hall, admitted kidnap and later changed his plea to guilty of murder.

The seven men convicted by jury for murder and kidnapping were:

  • Erland Spahiu, 34, White Moss Road South, Skelmersdale
  • Dean O'Neill Davey, 30, of Conrad Close, formerly of Bulteel Street, Wigan
  • Martin Smith, 34, of Greenwood Avenue
  • Alan Jaf, 52, of Ridyard Street, Worsley Hall
  • Khalil Awla, 48, of Greenwood Avenue
  • Mohammed Razgar, 40, of Plane Avenue, Worsley Hall
  • Erion Voja, 21, of Peall Road, Croydon, London

Andrius Uzkuraitis, 27, of Holly Road, Worsley Hall, was cleared of murder and kidnapping and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm but was convicted of assisting an offender.

Michael Gibbons, 47, of Bulteel Street, Wigan, who has only faced two charges of perverting the course of justice, was acquitted of one of the offences, but the jury was still considering the second charge against him.

The sentencing hearing is due to start on 8 February.

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